The man in the suit
by Writer207
Summary: When Shelby and Cyd go back to the future lab once again and they can't get back to the present immediately, they figure out who the man in the suit is. (one-shot)


**The man in the suit**

* * *

 ** _Future, time unknown_**

And they were back in the future.

How did Cyd and Shelby know they were in the future? Well, they were once again strapped to the glowing tables in the middle of a bright white room. The only way out was still through time travel or the door at their heads, where the person in the suit was still standing. Instinctively, the two girls started screaming. This guy was bad news.

And this guy had moved closer to them as the two girls reached out for each other. However, they could not jump back to the present. The man in the suit had grabbed Shelby's arm and forced it back on the table.

"Cyd!" Shelby cried out in despair as she tried to wrestle her arm out of the man's firm grasp. No touching means no time travel and no time travel means no going back home.

"Shelby!" Cyd replied, sounding just as desperate as her best friend. She knew exactly what this meant. The man forced Shelby's arm on the table and strapped her wrist to the table, slightly shaking his head. He should've never let his assistant strap the subjects to the table. Luckily he came to check up on them before the experiments began to see if the assistant had made any mistakes. He should've bound their arms as well. They were not allowed to go to any other time. Plus, these girls were really annoying. This screaming needed to end.

"Stop screaming!" he commanded. He would've sounded like he was angry if he wasn't able to stay calm, "I need to think and I can't think when you're screaming." He walked out of the room and came back a few seconds later. There were some files he needed to read before he could proceed to experiment on them. He already knew what was written by heart, but reading it again helped him memorize the facts better.

"How did you know we need to touch to time travel?" Cyd asked the man while Shelby tried to free her arm from the straps. After Cyd had (sort of) calmed down, she started to wonder why he would only tie up that one arm. Her first guess was that the man would do the same to her later, but he didn't look like he was in a hurry. Or that he would even tie Cyd's right arm the way he did with Shelby's left hand. The man turned to Cyd.

"Because you told me you needed to touch each other and Shelby told me you needed to think about the time." the man answered and went back to reading the files. Shelby suddenly realized she recognized his voice from somewhere. While she was thinking where she knew his voice from, Cyd kept him talking. She too recognized the voice but knew Shelby would try and figure out who he is. But she probably needed to hear him talk a bit more.

"We would never tell anyone how we do what we do." Cyd said. The man sighed, irritated because he was interrupted once more, and he turned to Cyd.

"Listen," the man in the suit said, clearly irritated, "you did tell me. And that's more than enough. And you two are supposed to be anesthetized right now so I can do my job." He complained and made a note to tell his assistant to do better. He had been a better assistant when they were both teenagers. He wasn't bothered by the fact; time flew by and there was no way of going back… not yet.

 _Man, it's hot in here,_ the man thought. He considered taking the hat off. His first reaction was to keep it on, but then he re-evaluated his situation. He was supposed to keep it on during the experiments. Technically speaking, they hadn't started experimenting today yet, so he could still take it off and enjoy the cold room until he had to observe the subjects' reactions for two hours.

He took off the hat and placed it on the ground to take a closer look at the two test subjects. Shelby and Cyd noticed the man in the suit took off the hat and now tried to turn their heads to see who had helped lock them up here. As soon as they saw his face, their jaws dropped.

"No way." Cyd said when she saw him.

" _Barry?_ " Shelby said after Cyd reacted. That's why the voice sounded so familiar. It had been Barry's voice she heard! He didn't look very different than present Barry, only a little older.

"This place suddenly doesn't look as scary." Cyd commented. Shelby silently agreed, but there was still something she wanted to know.

"Are you the one who put us here?"

"Not necessarily," he replied, picking up the files, "I've been working behind the scenes and – why am I repeating myself? You already know it was me who revealed your secret to the world." As soon as he said this, he realized there was only one explanation as to why they didn't know it was him who revealed their secret. "You just jumped here from the past, didn't you?" their lack of response told him they indeed came here from the past. He didn't continue with the talk. Their past was none of his business. Their future, however, that was the part he was interested in.

"Why would you reveal our secret?" Shelby asked after a while, but she got no response. Barry refused to talk to them right now. he had pulled out his phone, pressed a few buttons and then put it away. The trio spent the next two minutes in silence, all occupied with their own thoughts. Shelby and Cyd tried to think of ways to reach each other, so they could touch each other and get out of here. This has been the longest they've been in the lab and they didn't want to stay any longer.

They heard how someone else walked into the room and they were surprised once again. This man didn't wear a suit like Barry. He wore a simple lab coat with a strange logo printed on the chest: a black atom, of which the nucleus resembled planet earth, with a big "G" on it. This was the first time they saw him without a hat on his head.

"Naldo?" Shelby didn't realize she spoke until she said his name. Cyd didn't want to believe that young man was Naldo and was in denial until Naldo turned his head to them when he heard his name. so after all those years, he still was helping Barry with science.

"You know my name?" He wondered, and then turned to Barry. "Did you tell them my name? Thanks, Barry!" he said it with a big smile on his face. He had no idea Barry didn't tell them their names. Barry didn't answer Naldo's question and decided to ignore it.

"Naldo, what did I tell you when the subjects arrived in this facility?" He asked his assistant. The smile disappeared from his face and his expression became serious. Shelby and Cyd watched, surprised to see how his smile faded. This may have been the first time they saw him without the hat and the smile.

"Don't talk to the subjects," Naldo answered the question and Barry nodded.

"Exactly. Now, why didn't you anesthetize the subjects? Or put on your suit?" Barry asked. He waited for the answer, but he didn't have to wait long.

"I forgot." Barry sighed. Naldo only got the job because Barry vouched for him. In the past, they've proven to be a good team. And now, as adults, they still could work together. Yet, as Barry's capacities increased, it looked like Naldo's decreased.

"Go get the anesthetics and then come back here," Barry ordered, "they need to be sedated when the experiments start. If I'm not present in this room anymore, you apply the anesthetics." Naldo nodded and left the room. As the preparations for today were almost finished, Barry only had to wait for Naldo to arrive with the anesthetics. And then he had to make a quick trip to the bathroom so he would see the experiments held without having to miss anything.

"What did you to him?" Cyd asked him. Normally, Shelby and Cyd should know what happened to them and these versions didn't know. He didn't want to brag, but he did anyway.

"I shot him with a memory erasing device I invented." He told them proudly. Shelby and Cyd's jaws dropped. How could he be proud about shooting his best friend with an invention?

"You shot him with a memory erasing device?" Shelby exclaimed.

"And it worked?" Cyd added immediately after her best friend was done talking. Barry nodded.

"Off course it worked. _I_ built it." The girls rolled their eyes.

"Why would you do that? You're best friends." Shelby asked. Barry turned around, looking at them with a determined look in his eyes.

"He's a good friend, maybe, but he is a better lab assistant and that's the only reason he is here. When you two finally were caught and brought here, he became a little emotional and that's something I had to fix. For his own good, I built the device and shot him. I didn't erase his memories, I erased you two from his memories. He remembers everything except you two."

"You can't mess with someone's memories!" Cyd boldly said. "Especially since it's your best friend you shot." Barry looked at the brunette when he answered.

"It was for science," he said and he took off a glove to see the time. "Get comfortable. The experiments of today begin in five minutes." He then put the glove and the hat back on and walked out of the room.

The girls could cry. Would they be stuck here, in this awful future, before they actually had to live it? And even if they got out, they knew they would eventually end up in the lab anyway. But they at least could try to go back to the present and try not to go back here. They could try to be extra careful so they would never get caught.

Then, Naldo entered the room. He was pushing a cart into the room with everything they needed to apply the anesthetics. As soon as he noticed Barry wasn't here, he picked up the several tools to do it himself.

"Naldo, let us go!" Shelby begged him. Naldo decided to ignore their pleas for freedom, but he could still hear them. Barry prevented him from talking to the subjects, but he could still listen to what they had to say. And right now, the blonde was trying to beg her way to freedom.

"Naldo, please!" Shelby continued, "Release us!" Again no reaction. Shelby sighed and it looked like she would give up now. Yet, when Shelby didn't succeed, Cyd could always try. And she would try.

"Hey, Naldo," Cyd began, "Barry told us to deliver a message for you."

"He did?" Naldo wondered aloud. He wasn't responding to the brunette's words, he just was thinking out loud. Did Barry really leave him a message?

"Yes he did," Cyd continued, "He wanted us to tell you to untie Shelby's arm." And that's when Shelby realized Cyd had a plan and she would play along if necessary. But for now, Cyd got it handled. Besides, Naldo was still not really talking to the girls, as he was standing with his back to them. Later, he'd call it pondering out loud to what the subjects were saying.

"Why would Barry order me that?" Naldo pondered, "I'm sure he would never say that."

"Well," Shelby continued, "the strap around my wrist can affect the test results. Barry told us that when you were gone. The strap has to be removed because our arms need to be able to move freely for the next experiment."

"That's true," Cyd then said. "We wanted to help Barry by telling you."

Naldo slowly turned around so he could see the two subjects clearly. "You two are the first test subjects who would like to help the organization that experiments on them." Then, he placed his hand on his mouth because he spoke to the subjects and Barry specifically told him not to. But the girls didn't say anything back. Great. Nobody needed to know about this.

"We want to help and make this world a better place. Isn't that right, Cyd?" Shelby said and Cyd nodded.

"Absolutely," she said. That convinced Naldo to untie Shelby's arm. If the experiment required the two arms being able to move freely, he wouldn't keep those straps on. He stood between the two girls and untied Shelby's arm. As soon as it could be moved again, Naldo moved back and Barry re-entered the room.

He now knew he couldn't even trust his assistant to properly sedate the test subjects.

"What have you done?" He yelled as Shelby and Cyd reached out for each other and grabbed each other's hands. They both thought about the present and then they knew they'd be home the next second.

* * *

 ** _Present_**

The next moment, they were back in their room. They were extremely glad to be out of that awful lab in the future. But they weren't so glad about what they learned from their future.

"I can't believe Barry is the man in the suit!" Cyd said.

"I can't believe he actually erased us out of Naldo's memories," Shelby said. There was a three second silence before Cyd spoke up again.

"Maybe we should tell him we saw him in the lab." Shelby started to shake her head.

"No, no, no, no, no! That's a bad idea. If we tell him, he might try to reveal our secret way earlier." Cyd could see the logic behind those words. If Barry knew he would be the one to reveal they have powers in the future, he would probably try in the present to figure out the best way to show the world. And Naldo would probably help him, like he always did.

Cyd sighed. "You're right. But what do we do then?" Shelby's thought about it for a while before answering.

"We wait and be extra careful around Barry and Naldo." Cyd nodded, agreeing with her best friend, since there was nothing else they could do. They could only wait and be careful around Barry and Naldo. But how could they be careful without letting them know they knew important information about their future? They would want to know what they would do then.

Yet, both Shelby and Cyd would try their best to be careful in the presence of the man in the suit, even if it sometimes wouldn't be easy.

* * *

 **Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed my first Best Friends Whenever fanfic. This story is based on a quote from Barry from the second episode: "If people find out you have special powers, they'll lock you up in a lab and experiment on you. That's certainly what I would do if I had more space in my Winnebago.". It caused me to write this fanfic and made me (sort of) hope the man in the suit really _is_ Barry. It is possible since we only know they were captured in the future, but we don't know anything else about it. As far as I know, Barry is capable of exposing the secret. Anyway, thanks for reading this story and see you next time, either in this or another archive!**

 **-Writer207**


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